Jury selection has begun in the trial of a Briton charged with murdering his American wife and baby.

Neil Entwistle, 29, arrived in court today accused of shooting dead his wife Rachel, 27, and their nine-month-old daughter, Lillian Rose, in 2006.

His wife and child were found shot dead in bed at the family's rented home outside Boston on January 20, 2006. Entwistle is accused of murdering them with a .22 revolver taken from his father-in-law, before fleeing back to his parents in Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

Mr Entwistle arrived at Middlesex Superior Court in a suburb of Boston behind darkened windows as part of a three-car convoy as helicopters circled overhead. His lawyers and prosecuting attorneys have begun the process of sifting through 170 candidates for 12 jurors and four alternates.

The prosecution alleges that Mr Entwistle was dissatisfied with his sex life and had searched for sex both before and after the killings. Papers submitted to the court also claim that he was faced with mounting debts after his internet businesses failed and that he had searched the web for information on killing people shortly before his wife and daughter died.

Mr Entwistle, who has pleaded not guilty, faces life in prison without parole if convicted of first degree murder. He claims that he was so horrifed upon discovering the bodies that he left the country immediately and did not alert authorities because it was obvious that nothing could be done to save them. The alarm was raised by his wife's mother. Mr Entwistle was arrested in London on February 9, 2006.

Prosecutors say that Mr Entwistle's DNA was found on the gun, which they allege he replaced in his wife's parents' house, 50 miles away, after the killings.

Mr Entwistle's lawyer, Elliot Weinstein, has said repeatedly that he fears Mr Entwistle cannot receive a fair trial in the US because of intense media interest in the case.

Mr Entwistle met Rachel Souza in 1999, when they were both students at the University of York. They married in 2003 and moved to the US two years later.

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